Don't Go
by sugarapplesweet
Summary: The life of a warrior is a valiant one, yet death knows nothing of heroes and lovers while it seeks out those whose time has passed. However, there will always be those that are left behind...


**Author's Note:** I think it's sort of sad that I wrote this during what should be the most cheerful season of the year, but since I keep dying in RF... I couldn't help imagining this scene playing itself out. Please enjoy!

**Disclaimer:** I don't own any of the HM characters which might be a good thing considering how horrible I am at RPGs! XP

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**Don't Go...**

"Come on now, dear," a soft and gentle voice called quietly to the young woman at the alter. Although it wasn't an invitation, she still shook her head solemnly in reply. The man stood at the base of the stairs as he gazed at her tenderly, and for the first time, he felt the weight of his ivory, parishioner's robes falling heavily on his shoulders. To see his daughter in this state during what _should've_ been the happiest years of her life... it was nothing short of heartbreaking for a father to witness. He knew _she_ was the one who desperately needed comfort, yet he was unable to console her. While he was a man of the faith, none of his soothing words could reach his woeful child.

Perhaps if _he_ would've been the one...

_No,_ he reasoned, _that's not possible now, the god's bless him..._ The reverend flinched as his own heart tightened with grief, and he averted his gaze from his own pulpit before which a rather gruesome sight lay. He had seen death many times in his life, of course, but it never was anything like... _that_. He was certain even _she_ hadn't seen a body in such a terrible condition while working at the town's clinic. The doctor had done his best to explain in the kindest words her could muster that there was no chance of surviving a vicious wound of that nature.

"Lara..." he whispered in a voice so small that she barely heard, "I'll be praying for you both..." She nodded weakly although it did little to reassure her. Nothing ever could ease the consuming loneliness which threatened to overtake her, yet she tried in vain to hold her emotions in check and keep herself together. She knew as both a nurse and a preacher's daughter that people passed away each and every day, but those that had died before him were ones she had no connection to. Perhaps that was had startled her the most.

People don't expect to lose someone they love so dearly. Was this divine punishment for her apathy towards others and their plights? Surely... that _had_ to be the case. There was no use in looking for an alternative answer, for no one else could be blamed.

After all, what wrong had _he_ done in this world?

Kardia looked to him as a local hero although he was an outsider in the beginning. He had always been a mystery since he had lost all of his memories prior to coming to the small village on the border of the Norad Kingdom and the Sechs Empire, yet no one would dare say an ill word of him. He was noble and chivalrous, and he had such a... calming air about him. It was no wonder the townspeople had come to love him as one of their own... only to have him taken from them so suddenly.

"Raguna..." she mumbled his name to herself, kneeling at his side. "Can you hear me? I wonder..." When his chapped lips, once rosy in life and now tinged with blue in death, didn't stir, she chocked back a betrayed sob. "You promised me you'd be _alright!"_ she cried out at last, throwing herself on top of him, not even concerning herself with the blood that stained his tunic and leather armor. The magenta waves of her hair, freed from the confines of her white cap and veil in her grief, splayed out across his chest while she hid her face in the crook of his neck. She didn't care who might happen upon her in disheveled state as long as she could still hold him close.

The wound to his lower torso was clearly fatal since it nearly had torn him in half. From its jagged appearance at the edges, the doctor could only assume it had been caused by a monster along the Mt. Gigant pass. It was nothing like the cuts and scrapes he would sometimes come to her for healing, and she had shivered to think about what manner of _beast_ could've ripped him apart so viciously...

Hadn't this been the same young man who tried to convince her that humans and monsters could be _friends?_

She only had herself to blame for believing his words, and she couldn't keep herself from feeling guilty for what had happened, either. Lara cried pitifully against his cold skin although she knew he wouldn't feel the warmth of her tears, nor would her sorrow ever reach him. She had no faith left in much of _anything _anymore, let alone a life after death. Her father may have been a priest, but she could no longer share his belief in a higher power. If a god _truly_ existed in this world, why had he let her only love _die?_

"You promised you'd marry me..." she murmured, gripping the beautiful blue stone which he had given her not even a day before. She buried her face into his soft, chocolate brown hair that lay on the satin pillow beneath his head as she continued to morn in garbled pleas for him to return to her. Then she gathered up every emotion she could muster from within her, from grief to bitterness, and she begged with complete, utter desperation, "Don't go, Raguna!"

Her anguished cries shattered the tranquil silence of the space, yet nothing could quiet her. If there was anything left of his spirit in this sacred place of worship, she wanted him to hear her longing. On the cold, stone floors of the chapel where they were to be married, she crumbled and reached out a frail hand to whatever may lay beyond the sight of her golden eyes. However, the warmth of his comforting touch was gone. What had once been a perfect life of true bliss and cherished happiness fell apart with one final cry of heartache and defeat... her last request to a dead man whom she loved above all others...

"Please don't leave me behind!"

_--_

**Author's Final Note:** I was expecting this to be longer, but... I still have my final painting to finish. O.o Let's hear it for procrastination! XD

Seriously, though, the hardest part of this was trying to describe the scene since all of the character designs for RF are _so_ detailed, and it's hard to put it into words. I mean, how do you go about describing Raguna's outfit or Lara's with all the individual pieces that make up the whole? The best I could probably do for Wesley was compare him to the Pope! X3


End file.
